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Chilonga villagers from Chiredzi, who are facing eviction after the government gave their land to a private company, have vowed they will not budge.
Government says it is reviving Chilonga irrigation scheme which has been lying idle for more than 10 years, including the setting up of a lucerne grass project.
Ministers claim the scheme will earn the country US$50 million per annum and potentially feed 5,000 people.
However, addressing the media in Harare Wednesday, Livison Chikutu, one of the 12,000 Shanganis set to be evicted, said no form of compensation would be enough.
Chilonga villagers address a press conference in Harare
Chikutu said they would rather die for their land because the government has no plans in place to compensate them.
“There is no promise on the compensation, they just want to grab (our land) and run away,” Chikutu said.
“They just want to (take) our land, grab and go forever, then someone comes the next day saying it’s not your land.
“They are doing nothing; they are talking a lot of lies saying they did door-to-door consultation, yet we are the settlers and we did not see such a thing.
“We can’t let our land be taken in that way, we have seen it before and there was no compensation.”
Human rights and constitutional lawyer Tendai Biti said the matter has been taken to the Constitutional Court.
He said the community had over the years been forced to move several times to make way for government projects.
Meanwhile, Chikutu said they would rather be killed than leave their land.
“So we are saying , it’s better they come and just shoot us so we die at once than for us to be told to leave this land and resettle somewhere else,” he said.
Chikutu said they were being forced to move without compensation and are being intimidated by the military intelligence.
The government relied on the Communal Land Act to evict the villagers.
Sections 4 and 6 of the Communal Lands Act vests rural land in the hands of the President.
The Chilonga villagers comprises more than twenty thousand families, and the community has lived on the targeted lands for more than five hundred years. NewZimbabwe
